The present invention relates to a tag feeder and a method for feeding tags being provided in a chain of tags, in a feeding direction to a dispending position within a clipping machine.
In particular, the invention concerns a tag feeder wherein a feeding mechanism is provided with at least one pusher means for transporting the chain of tags. The pusher means is reversibly movable approximately parallel to the feeding direction between a first and second position, wherein in the first position, the pusher means is in a minimum displacement to the dispensing position and wherein, in the second position, the pusher means is in a maximum displacement to the dispensing position.
Moreover, the invention concerns a method for feeding tags being provided in a chain of tags, in a feeding direction to a dispensing position within a clipping machine by means of a feeding mechanism with at least one pusher means for transporting the chain of tags.
Thereby, the pusher means is reversibly movable approximately parallel to the feeding direction between a first and second position, wherein, in the first position, the pusher means is in a minimum displacement to the dispensing position and wherein, in the second position, the pusher means is in a maximum displacement to the dispensing position.
It is usual practice in the production, for example, of sausage-shaped products or bag-shaped products containing food or non-food items, respectively, to use an automatic clipping machine. In the production of sausages, sausage-meat is filled via a filling tube into a flexible packaging material, like a tubular casing which is closed by a closure means, referred to as closing clip, at the first end of the to be filled packaging material. Two or more clips are applied to a plait-like portion by closing means of the clipping machine. Similarly, closing clips can be used for closing bag-shaped products. In most of the cases, clipping machines regular one and those with specific displacers for closing bags, with bladed displacers or trapping displacers are being used.
It is also usual practice to attach a tag to the sausage-shaped or bag-shaped product holding certain information regarding, for example, the expiration, the composition, the end use or the content of the sausage-shaped product. The tag consists thereby in general of a flexible strip, for example made of paper, and is provided in a chain of tags usually rolled onto a drum. For attaching the tag holding the information to the sausage-shaped product, one tag of the chain of tags is wedged between the clip and plait-like portion during the production step of applying the clips to the plait-like portion.
For that, the tag is being fed close to the closure means of the clipping machine by means of a tag feeder. The tag is therefore brought to a dispensing position at which one end of the tag is sticking out of the tag feeder and is positioned in a longitudinal arrangement close and approximately parallel to the plait-like portion. When two clips are being applied to the plait-like portion by the closing means, the tag is also enclosed by at least one clip and thereby connected to the finished sausage-shaped or bag-shaped product. Such a practice for feeding tags to a clipping machine is disclosed, for example, by DE patent 199 01 039 C2.
It is known in the practice that the procedure of providing a tag to the sausage-shaped or bag-shaped product by ripping-off the foremost tag from the chain of tags by the closure means is often not completely unproblematic and frequently causes difficulties in the production of these products. One of the main problems constitutes in the faulty separation of a single tag from the chain of tags, since often the tag does not separate at the correct position when being ripped-off. It is not unusual that just half a tag or even one and a half tags being ripped-off the chain and fed to the clipping machine. Consequently, these incorrect tags lead to interruptions in the production of sausage- or bag-shaped products by causing scrap.
In order to enhance the correct separation of one single tag from the chain, a perforation is provided between each tag as a predetermined breaking point, in order to enhance the separation of just one single tag.
However, these perforations bear also a number of difficulties for the usage in sausage-production and for the production of the actual chain of tags. The perforation need to balance certain technical requirements set to it. The perforation need to fulfill the requirement of being relative robust, in order to keep the tags attached to each other during transport and handling and at the same time the perforation has to allow the tag to separate from the chain of tags with relatively little force applied to it. Complying with these requirements, in order to create a chain of tags with a suitable perforation is therefore a relative complex and expensive procedure.
Also, there are often problems with the quality of the perforation on the chain of tags. In particular, the stamping of the perforation is not always according to specification and leads to variations in size as well as position. As a result to that faulty perforation, the tags do not separate at the perforation, but separate somewhere else leaving broken tags as waste. This is mostly caused by wear of the perforation machine in general or especially by the perforation-punch.
Beyond that, the production costs for producing a chain of tags having perforations are higher than for a chain of tags without perforations, which, as a result, leads to higher overall costs in the sausage-production.